


Unexpected

by my_mad_fatuation



Series: Unexpected [1]
Category: My Mad Fat Diary
Genre: F/M, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-28 00:16:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12593768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/my_mad_fatuation/pseuds/my_mad_fatuation
Summary: Rae is pregnant, but the father took off, leaving Finn to take care of her during this trying time.





	Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this prompt: https://my-mad-fatuation.tumblr.com/post/166989878648/howd-ya-feel-bout-this-for-an-idea-13-i-have-a

_8 weeks_

Finn opens his arms to let Rae nestle against him and hugs her tightly. As much as it pains him to see her happy with anyone else, it hurts even more to see her heartbroken. He kisses the top of her head reassuringly as she sobs into his shoulder.

“I don’t understand why he would do this to you, and so suddenly,” he says. “I mean, the two of you had a holiday planned and everything.”

“He had a reason,” she says as she pulls her head away from him to dry her eyes with the end of her sleeve.

“And what reason might that be?” he asks. “Because he’s a prick?”

“It’s because I’m pregnant, Finn,” she says without looking at him.

He’s glad that she can’t see the look of shock on his face. “How… How long have you known?”

“A little while,” she says. “I’m only 8 weeks now, but I waited to tell him ‘cos I thought… I thought he might not take it too well.”

“Like breaking up with you because he found out you’re pregnant with his child?” Finn asks incredulously.

“Yeah, like that.”

“I swear, I will punch his lights out,” he says. “I don’t care if he is bigger than me, I’ll do it.”

Rae laughs sadly but it comes out sounding more like a cough. “Thanks, but you don’t have to do that,” she says.

“Does him leaving… Does it… Does it affect your decision? Y’know…”

“I dunno.” She leans forward in her seat and he rubs her on the back in what he hopes is a soothing manner.

“I mean, I think… I think I want to keep it,” she says. “I just don’t know if I can do it on my own. I mean, raising a child is…”

“It’s not easy, I’m sure, but you can absolutely do it, Rae,” he says. “Your mum raised you on her own, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, and look how I turned out.”

“What d’you mean, how you turned out?”

“First of all, I’m _knocked up_ ,” she says.

“Yeah, but you’re twenty-eight, Rae; you’re an adult. It’s not the same as if it’d happened when you were sixteen or summat.”

“Yeah, but at least then…”

“At least then, what?” he asks.

“At least then it would have been you,” she says. “I mean, you might’ve still run away, but—”

“I wouldn’t’ve,” he says. “But Rae, I know that you can do this, if that’s what you want. And you aren’t on your own. I’m here for whatever you need.”

“I don’t want to be a burden to ya—”

“Hey, listen to me,” he interrupts, holding onto her arm. “You are not—are _never_ —a burden to me. Got it?”

She nods her head solemnly and he wraps his arms around her again.

“You’re all right,” he says as he hugs her.

“I don’t know how I’m going to tell my mum,” she says with a sigh against him.

“You haven’t told her yet?”

“I’m going back to Stamford for a visit in a couple weeks,” she replies. “I figured I’d just tell her then, as long as it’s still… relevant. No need to get anyone’s hopes up, right?”

He squeezes her tighter.

“It’s so stupid,” she says, muffled by his chest. “It’s not even real yet and already I…”

“I know, I know,” he says comfortingly, stroking her hair. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

***

_10 weeks_

“Pregnant?” asks Rae’s mum. She looks surprised but not upset by the news. “Are you sure?”

“What?” says Rae, like she’s offended. “Yes, I’m sure! I checked with the doctor and everything.”

“Alright, alright,” her mum replies before eyeing Finn suspiciously.

“Jesus, mum, it’s not his!” Rae says, exasperated.

“Well, whose is it, then?”

“It’s Ryan’s,” she says. “Remember? My boyfriend? Well, ex-boyfriend, but still…”

Her mum’s expression towards her softens. “Aw, Rae, sweetie. Come here,” she says. She opens her arms for a hug, which Rae begrudgingly accepts.

When the hug ends, Rae’s mum looks between Rae and Finn expectantly and adds, “Is that all you wanted to tell me, then?”

“Why, is that not enough?” says Rae.

“No, it’s just…” Her mum glances at Finn again. “I was just wondering if there was more.”

“That’s all I can think of,” Rae replies.

“Well, good.” Her mum smiles tightly and turns her attention to Finn. “Are you staying for tea, lovely?” she asks him.

“Er, no, I’ve gotta go see me dad,” he says, and then puts a hand on Rae’s shoulder gently. “I’ll be back tomorrow to pick you up, alright?”

She nods and says goodnight before he leaves.

***

_12 weeks_

“Thank god, you’re here,” says Rae as she opens the door to her flat. She grabs Finn by the sleeve of his jacket and pulls him inside.

He laughs a little and makes his way through to the kitchen, where he sets down the grocery bag he’s carrying. “I got you a dozen lemons,” he says, pulling items out of the bag as he announces them, “a jar of hot peppers, and all the plain Dairy Milk I could find.”

“Thank you!” She tears open the bag of lemons and pulls one out before getting a knife out of the drawer to slice it into wedges.

Finn assumes she’s going to put them in some ice water as a refreshing beverage, but instead she starts biting into the wedges and sucking the juice out of them.

“Okay…” he says slowly, and then laughs.

“You want some?” she asks, offering him a slice.

He scrunches up his nose in disgust. “No, thanks, I’m good.”

“Lemons are fucking amazing,” she says.

“Sure they are.”

She stops gnawing on the lemon and looks at him. “You probably think I’m a weirdo, don’t you?” she says.

“What? Rae, you’re not a weirdo,” he says. “You’ve just got food cravings or whatever.”

“I wonder what the cashier at Sainsbury’s thought when she saw you buying all of this,” she adds with a small chuckle.

“It doesn’t matter what she thought,” he says, though the cashier did give him a strange look.

“My, er, wife… is pregnant,” he’d said to her, hoping she wouldn’t notice the absence of a ring on his finger.

She’d nodded like that was mildly interesting. “Congratulations.”

He feels weird that he lied to the cashier, but it just seems like it would have been so much more difficult to explain the truth.

 _My best friend with whom I’m secretly madly in love is pregnant with another man’s baby, but he left her, so now I’m the one who has to take care of her cravings._ It doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way.

***

_18 weeks_

Rae squeezes Finn’s hand as the ultrasound technician applies the gel to her stomach. Although she’s had an ultrasound before, Rae still seems nervous about it.

“It’s all right,” Finn says to her, holding onto her hand with one of his while he rubs her shoulder with the other. “You’re doing great.”

The exam takes a little while, but the technician walks them through everything, showing them the sonogram and explaining what they are looking at, because to Finn it just looks like static. Lumpy static.

Rae is in tears, however, and squeezes Finn’s hand harder than before.

“Now,” says the technician, “would you and your partner like to know the sex of the baby?”

Finn lets go of Rae. “Oh, er—”

“We’re not—”

“I’m just—”

“He’s just my friend,” Rae says. “And, no, I’d rather not know.”

“Seriously?” Finn asks her.

“I mean, it doesn’t matter does it?” she replies. “It’s not like I’m going to colour-code its bedroom according to its gender.”

“Yeah, but wouldn’t you like to stop referring to your baby as ‘it?’” he says.

“It’s not even really a baby yet. It’s just a… A…”

“A lump of static?” He points to the sonogram.

“Yes, exactly!” she says.

He laughs a little. “Yeah, fine, whatever you want.”

“Are we about done here, then?” Rae asks the technician. “Because I need to piss like you wouldn’t believe.”

***

_23 weeks_

“What’s wrong? Are you all right? Are you hurt?” Finn asks when Rae answers the door to her flat.

“What? I’m fine,” she says, amused, like she doesn’t know why he’d even be concerned.

“Your text message said, ‘Come over now!’” he says, making his way past her into the flat. “I thought something had happened to ya.”

“Oh.” Her expression grows more serious, and she adds, “Sorry, I just, I wanted to see you ‘cos…”

“Because what?”

“Do you ever think about… us?” she asks.

“What about us?”

“About us back when we… were _us_.”

“I s’pose…” he says, uncertain as to where she’s going with this.

“Do you think about, you know, what it would be like now?”

“What d’you mean?”

“I mean, now that we’ve got more experience under our belts, so to speak, wouldn’t it be even better?”

“Wait, are you talking about…?”

“I just wonder sometimes…”

“You’re not suggesting…?”

“Just once, yeah?” she says. “It doesn’t have to mean anything; it would just be for tonight.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he says.

“Why not?”

“Because… It would open up a can of worms, I don’t want to deal with all of that.”

“But these pregnancy hormones are killing me,” she says, hanging onto his arm. “You have no idea what it’s like; I want to have sex literally all the time!”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to go down that road—”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Finn, can’t you just take one for the team?”

“I don’t think—”

“Is the thought of having sex with me so terrible that you won’t even consider it?” she asks irritably.

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea for us, that’s all,” he says. “I’d like to help you, Rae, really, but it’ll just raise too many questions and…”

“And what?”

“Never mind,” he grumbles.

“Is it… Is it because I’m bigger now?” she says, backing away slowly. “I know I’ve always been something of an acquired taste, but now I’m the size of a planet, and—”

She is starting to get worked up, so Finn reaches out for her hand.

“Look, it’s got nothing to do with you,” he says. “It’s about us, our history, and our future as friends, right? I don’t want to jeopardize that for one night.”

“Fine.” She pulls her hand away. “If you aren’t going to help me, then you can just leave.”

“But—”

She opens the door for him without saying another word.

He watches her for a moment before he realizes that she’s serious, and heads out the door. “Call me if you need anything else, yeah?” he says.

She nods tightly and shuts the door behind him.

He takes a moment outside her flat to lean against the wall next to the door, letting his head fall back in exasperation. “What is wrong with you?” he mutters to himself.

***

_30 weeks_

“That sure is a lot of chocolate,” says the cashier at the Tesco Express near Rae’s flat. She laughs a little to indicate she’s teasing Finn good-naturedly.

Finn doesn’t recognize her, even though he’s been by almost every day for the past two months—sometimes twice a day if Rae changed her mind about what she wanted. The cashier is pretty, though, but she has lots of piercings all the way up one of her ears, and he can’t help but wonder if it hurt to get them done.

“My friend, you see, is pregnant,” he explains, “so she’s got all these food cravings and stuff.” He’s not really sure why he didn’t lie and say it’s his wife this time.

“So you’re helping her out?” the cashier asks. “That’s really sweet.”

“Thanks,” he says modestly as he gets out his card to pay.

“I know this is going to sound really absurd, and I swear I didn’t think I was going to do this ever, let alone on my first day here,” she says, “but would you maybe like to get a drink with me some time?”

He frowns as he looks at her in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

“It’s a bit forward, I know, but I figure, what the hell? I might never see you again.”

 _I wouldn’t count on that_ , he thinks to himself.

“Er, yeah, okay,” he finally replies. “I’m not sure when, exactly, but—”

“This,” she says, writing something onto his receipt, “is my number. Call me when you figure out your schedule, yeah?”

“Yeah, alright,” he says as she hands him the bag of chocolate bars. “Thanks.”

“I’m Diana, by the way,” she adds. “But everyone calls me Dee.”

“Finn,” he replies.

She smiles. “Nice to meet you, Finn.”

***

_32 weeks_

“What took you so long?” Rae says when she answers her door. She’s obviously been crying, by the looks of it.

“Sorry,” says Finn, stepping into her flat. “I was out with Dee and I didn’t get your message until—”

“Ugh!”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to hear about her,” she whines.

“Who, Dee?”

“Ugh!”

“Alright, fine, I won’t mention her anymore,” he says.

“It’s not just that,” she says. “I hate that you’re with her when you should be with me!”

“What?”

“You’re supposed to be here whenever I need you, and instead you’re traipsing around town with that _bitch_ , and—”

“You can’t seriously be telling me that you’re jealous of Dee,” he says.

“Why not?”

“Because that’s ridiculous, Rae.” He picks up both of her hands with his to keep her from clenching her fists. “You know you’ll always come first to me, right?”

She blinks a couple of tears down her cheeks. “Really?”

“Look, if—If you don’t want me to see her anymore, I won’t,” he says.

“I can’t… ask you to do that…”

“Rae, I told you from the start that I’d be here for whatever you need, and I mean it. If that means I don’t get a personal life until the baby’s born, then fine. You come first, Rae.”

He pulls her in for a hug and strokes her head to smooth down her hair. “You come first,” he repeats. “Always.”

***

_37 weeks_

Finn sits by Rae’s feet as she curls up on the sofa, supporting her belly with her arms. He tickles one of her feet and she nearly kicks him.

“What was that for?” she asks.

“I just thought I would try and distract you,” he says with a laugh.

“Well, don’t. It’s not helping.”

“Sorry.”

She starts to tense up and Finn can tell she’s having another one.

“Is it really painful?” he asks when it appears to be over.

“I’m fine,” she says. “I’ve had these Braxton-Hicks contractions before.”

“Yeah, but aren’t they usually over by now?” he says. “It seems like they’re getting worse.”

“It’s fine.”

“But do you think this could be it, for real this time?”

“I’m not due for a couple weeks. I said it’s fine.”

A silence falls over them for several minutes until the next contraction, after which point Rae speaks again.

“While we’re on the subject, though,” she says, her breath slightly strained. “I was wondering… Are you going to be there for the delivery?”

“You mean at the hospital?” he says. “Of course, I wouldn’t—”

“No, I mean, in the room with me while I…”

“Oh. Rae, I don’t—I don’t think I can do that.”

She tries to sit up a bit and frowns at him. “Why not?”

“Wouldn’t someone else be better?” he says. “Like your mum! She’s already done it so she’d make a much better support person and—”

“Are you serious right now?” she says. “I don’t want my mum there! We’d end up screaming at each other.”

“Your sister, then?”

“My sister is twelve!”

“Well, I still think you should ask your mum,” he says. “I won’t be of any use to you.”

“But—But—!” she begins, and then doubles over in pain. She groans loudly, which makes Finn suspect that the contractions are getting worse.

“I don’t understand,” she says once she can speak again, though she has tears in her eyes. “Why won’t you—”

She stops talking suddenly and tries to stand up, but she can’t do it on her own.

“What? What is it?” he asks as he helps her up.

“I think I’m peeing,” she says with a look of horror on her face. “Oh my god, I’m peeing!”

“What?”

They both look down and he sees a trail of liquid running down her leg and onto the floor.

“I can’t stop it, Finn, oh my god!”

“Rae,” he says, holding onto her shoulders. “I think your water broke.”

***

Finn drives Rae to the hospital as quickly as he can, while still respecting traffic limits and trying not to jostle her too much. She has another contraction in the car, and she’s practically screaming through it. He wishes there was something he could do to help her—he can’t stand to see her in that kind of pain.

“We’re almost there,” he says once the contraction has subsided. “It’ll all be over soon.”

***

It is several more hours before Rae is ready to deliver, but her family still isn’t there due to a train cancellation. They are on their way, but it’s starting to look like they aren’t going to make it in time.

“I can’t do this,” Rae says as she holds onto Finn’s hand, panic in her voice. “Why did I think this was a good idea? I can’t _give birth_. I can’t do it. Make it stop. I don’t want to do this anymore!”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” he says, stroking her hair with his free hand. “You _can_ do this, Rae. You’re strong, remember?”

“I’m not strong enough, though.”

“You are, Rae. You are,” he assures her. “And I’m right here.”

“Are you coming in with me, then?” she asks, squeezing his hand tighter.

He hesitates for a moment. It’s hard enough watching her go through the pain of labour, he doesn’t know if he can handle watching her give birth as well. But there’s no one else to go in with her.

“Of course,” he says. “I’ll be right with you the whole time.”

***

Finn holds Rae’s hand as the doctor tells her to push. He feels like she might be breaking every bone in his hand, but imagines that it is nothing like the pain she must be in.

“I can’t do any more!” she cries. “Don’t make me do it! I can’t do it!”

“Rae, you have to keep going, you’re almost there,” says the doctor.

“I can’t!”

“You can, Rae,” says Finn. “You’re the strongest person I know. If anyone can do this, it’s you, alright?”

She shakes her head aggressively but leans forward to try pushing again. He rubs her on her back to try and help her through the final push.

“It’s a boy!” the doctor announces as she holds the newborn.

Finn leans over to take a look, and it’s the most disgusting thing he’s ever seen in his life, but he’s amazed by it.

“Rae,” he says, “you just made a person. That is fucking incredible.”

He can’t tell if Rae is laughing or sobbing—maybe a bit of both.

***

Once the baby gets cleaned up—and some other stuff happens that Finn is going to try to forget about—he’s brought over to Rae so she can hold him.

She holds onto him so cautiously, like she’s afraid she’s going to break him. She’s definitely crying now.

“You’re amazing, Rae,” says Finn, leaning down to kiss the top of her head a few times.

She looks up at him and he stares at her for a moment before kissing her on the lips.

“I love you,” he says, resting his forehead against hers.

“Really?” she asks quietly.

He strokes her cheek with his thumb, disturbing the tears that had fallen. “Oh my god, Rae, I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, you know,” she says, and he kisses her again.

He can’t help but smile as he stands upright, and she looks back down at the bundle in her arms. “What’s his name?” he asks.

“Heh. I don’t know yet.”

***

_One year later_

“Olly!” Rae says as she holds up baby Oliver. “You are a stinky boy, did you know that? Did you?”

He giggles and she kisses his forehead.

“Maybe we can convince Daddy to change you, since Mummy’s been on her feet all morning, yeah?” she says to him.

“Are you talking about me?” says Finn as he walks by carrying two mugs of tea for Oliver’s grandparents in the lounge.

“Do you mind?” she asks, shifting the baby in her arms to redistribute the weight.

Finn scrunches up his face to pretend like he does mind, and then says, “No, of course I don’t.” He sets down the mugs on a nearby side table and takes Oliver from her arms. “Would you take these in to your parents, then?”

“Yeah, of course,” she says. She gives each of her boys a kiss on the cheek before picking up the mugs and heading into the lounge.

“Alright, little man,” Finn says, lifting Oliver to look him in the eye. “Time to get you cleaned up for your birthday party.”


End file.
